How Not To Be A Writer

Have you ever noticed how many “How To Be A Writer” guides are floating around the internet?Have you seen all the articles about what being a writer means, detailing tips to fit the bill, sharing the holy guidelines you have to follow to truly be able to classify yourself as a “Writer”?

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course.Most of these guides are well-meaning; some of them are actually helpful.Tips of the trade!Tools of the craft!Help for the struggling me!

True, there is a lot that goes into being a writer, but I think at its core it’s very simple. We can break it into tiers pretty easily.

Tier Four:Only deign to write with a quill and ink because that’s how they did it in the olden days… shut yourself in a tower to fill rolls of parchment with your words… don’t go into the restricted section of the library… copy Hermione’s homework… master the Patronus before the dementors get you…

Well, fine, maybe that last tier crossed over into Hogwarts territory, but you get the picture: There are a lot of ways to be a writer, and some of them are hard!

You know what isn’t hard?Not being a writer.We all know how to do that (some writers are even better at not being a writer than non-writers), so I thought it’d be fun to make a quick list.And here it is!

Twelve Ways to Not be a Writer:

Always revise your first chapter before moving on to the second

Send around your freshly completed very-first rough draft for everyone to read.Actually, you should send that version in query letters, too

Don’t back up your manuscript.It’ll be fine

Most books are better if you start with a 50 page prologue.Those details will be important later so just put it all in there at the beginning

Check social media and email before you write.What if something pressing is in there that you have to deal with first?Instagram is important

Only write when flashes of brilliance (aka the Muse) strikes.If you write at any other time the words will be shit anyway

Writing is social!Feel free to bring your laptop into a distraction-rich environment.The best chapters are written while sitting at happy hour with your friends

If you get stuck just bash your head against the keyboard to see which letters make it into the screen.This one can also be filed under the ‘How to Actually Be a Writer’ list

My next book idea is actually better than this one so I’m going to move on to it and leave this one half-finished.*4 months later* Actually, maybe I’ll go back and finish that one book, this next one is dumb too

Did you remember to revise your opening line?It’s the most important part of the book.Take a least a week to perfect it before moving on – you might as well get it right the first time

Did I leave the oven on?I should go check if I left the oven on.Also my house needs to be deep cleaned asap I’ll be right back

This book would have been better as a screenplay anyway

To be serious for a second, though, there are a lot of ways not to be a writer, and we’re all (read: I am) guilty of them pretty often, which is fine.As I wrote a couple of posts ago, most of what we think are writing distractions are actually important parts of our lives – don’t feel guilty about making time to do other things every now and again.

And while there are many, many, many ways not to be a writer, there is really only one way to be a writer: Write.So if you write, and you write regularly, you’re a writer no matter what medium you choose.Congratulations!Wear that badge with pride!We’re all extroverted and super popular and party really hard and make barrels of cash (oh wait, sorry, I got confused again and meant to put that under my ‘Signs You Aren’t a Writer’ list).

Okay, so I know that the above list isn’t even close to all-encompassing.What’d I miss?What’s your favorite way not to be a writer?

I do SO much procrasti-cleaning. And I can’t work with any unread notifications…

There’s always RESEARCH (or reading wikipedia for 6 hours) and taking Myers-briggs personality tests for each of your main characters, and secondary characters, and background character’s second cousins…

Hahaha yes, I forgot about the research and personality tests. Especially doing light research on Wikipedia then going down the rabbit-hole by clicking every interesting link you find and somehow ending up on the mating habits of prehistoric mice or something equally ridiculous

Liked this a lot, my best way to not be a writer is to send my work to publishers to have them ignore it or say it’s not their sort of thing and wish me luck for the future.
My real best way is to write what I want and what I feel.
Oh and not give up!

My favourite way to not be a writer is to get lost in someone else’s books, or Netflix 🙂
I don’t back up my manuscript, not until I finish the book.
I stopped checked my email before I write…now I play Solitaire 🙂

Guilty of many of these…and yet, I still write, too. I think these should actually be under the heading of “how to be a writer”; it might stop people from thinking we can churn out that first book in a day, a week, etc. Great humor! Great post!

hahah I LOVE THIS. OMG #9 is me to a tee and I’m absolutely guilty of #5 – which is why I’m here right now instead of working on my novel. Well actually, I’m at work, so I should be working..

Reading this reminded me of this stupid blog post I wrote in 2015 when I was only a wee thing called ‘a very long list of words to avoid when writing’. The article was my attempt to be a pompous ass who thought it was okay to tell people how they should be writing. I think after a few months of following said writing rules, I was like f— that! Never again. Then I wrote ‘There’s writing rules and then there’s Chuck Wendig’ – to correct my blunder. So my favourite way to (not) be a writer? Is to avoid writing rules at all costs least I fall head first into a pit of #11

My list would read rxactly the same, including the quill, ink, Hermione, etc. Deep cleaning the house is the only thing I can get away with not doing right now as building work creates dust, and dust babies and grandkids. I’m writing. The deep clean can wait!

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Who The Heck Is Writing This Stuff?

Hi, I'm David Ben-Ami, a 27-year-old still clinging to the title of 'Recent College Graduate.' I'm a full-time fiction author working on my debut novel, and I love to blog about writing and life. I also love procrastinating, watching Netflix, all DC sports teams, and going out with my friends. Subscribe to this blog right above the picture to follow along!